The proposed planning modification, which received approval last week, also allowed for the mine to extend its life by a year to the end of September 2015.

Springvale sought the modifications due to buying a longwall to start the next panel, Longwall 416, in 2014.

Bringing in the longwall gear will allow Centennial to skip the 6-8 weeks typically lost with a longwall move, which would consequently lift production in 2014.

The approval also covered Centennial’s plans to bring in and operate an additional continuous miner and to hook up the mine’s wastewater system to Lithgow City Council’s sewage system to improve environmental outcomes.

In its recent approval, the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure said the small changes would provide another 30 jobs associated with the continuous miner and there were negligible additional impacts.

Centennial is separately seeking another modification to allow the mine life to be extended by 13 years and to keep the rate at 4.5Mtpa for that period.

Centennial is a subsidiary of Thailand energy company Banpu.